Michael Schumacher's string of bad luck continues at Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal

WALTER BUCHIGNANI, The Gazette06.09.2012

Mercedes Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany is reflected on the sunglasses of Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain before the drivers' parade at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on race day for the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Sunday, June 10, 2012.

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He can’t, of course, because in Formula One your number is determined by the championship standings at the end of the previous season.

In any case, no car carries the No. 13 because it’s considered bad luck. So Nico Hulkenberg has No. 12 on his Force India, and Kamui Kobayashi is next with No. 14 on his Sauber.

But let’s face it: If No. 7 is supposed to be lucky, someone with a sick sense of humour is playing a bad joke on Schumacher, whose Mercedes bears that number.

Not that he’s letting it get to him. Or if he is, he’s doing a good job of hiding it.

“Are you starting to feel cursed?” I asked him as he emerged from the Mercedes garage after his premature retirement from Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

“I’m fine,” he said, with almost a smile.

Of course, he did not look as chipper as he did a few days ago when he arrived at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and declared that he liked his number and had a good feeling about the weekend.

It’s not hard to see why. Everywhere you looked, you saw No. 7. If you rolled the dice in Schumacher’s vicinity, the safe bet is that it would come up.

It’s not just the number on his silver car. It’s also that Montreal marks the seventh race on the calendar. And that after six different winners in the first six races, unprecedented in F1, the event was on track to send a seventh new driver to the top of the podium. And that Schumacher has won seven times here before. And that he’s a seven-time champion. And, while we’re at it, that his last win here, in 2004, was his 77th.

Well, as it happened, we did see a seventh new winner on Sunday, so the streak continues. But it was not Schumacher. It was another former champ, Lewis Hamilton, in an eventful end to the 43rd Canadian Grand Prix. For the record, his McLaren carries the No. 4.

Schumi? Well, the only streak he was able to extend is the string of bad luck that has marred his season so far.

The German was forced to abandon on lap 45 on Sunday after the rear flap on his Mercedes – part of the car’s Drag Reduction System – remained stuck in the open position. Race over, his fifth retirement in seven races so far.

“I knew there was something wrong,” he said afterward. “I didn’t know it was the DRS, and the minute I looked in the mirror, it was, ‘oops, that’s interesting.’”

Schumacher noted that he suffered a similar problem with his DRS in April during qualifying in Bahrain, compromising his race, in which he finished 10th.

Before that, in China, his pit crew sent him back on to the track after his first stop without securing his front right wheel, spelling the end of that race. In Australia, at the opener, he retired with a gearbox failure.

Even the highlight of Schumacher’s season – his pole two weeks ago in Monaco – ended badly. First, he was demoted five spots on the starting grid because of a penalty carried over from Spain, where he crashed into the back of Bruno Senna’s Williams. Then, he retired with a fuel pickup problem.

This weekend, there was at least one bad omen for Schumacher despite the flush of sevens: He was forced to abandon his last qualifying lap on Saturday because time had run out before he crossed the start line, a strategic hiccup for which his team apologized.

On Sunday, Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn found himself having to say sorry once more to his veteran driver, whose contract with the team runs out at the end of the season.

“He suffered a hydraulic issue which left his DRS jammed open and it was not possible to fix it in race conditions,” Brawn said. “I can only apologize to Michael for a further technical failure.”

And yet, Schumacher himself sounded remarkably composed for a man so snake-bitten, and even found some humour amid the bleakness.

“It’s a lot of bad luck, for sure, but the small bit of luck is that these things always happen to my car – so that the other car can take all the points. And so for the team, it’s not all bad.”

Then he added, just to be sure there was no misunderstanding: “But for sure, the team, like me, is not satisfied with the situation.”

Nico Rosberg, in the other Mercedes, finished the race in sixth place, giving him eight points for a total 67. That puts him fifth in the championship.

Schumacher has two points from his pair of 10th-place finishes in Bahrain and Malaysia. He’s 18th in the standings among 24 drivers – no place for someone of his stature.

I was surprised Sunday to hear Schumacher respond to reporters’ questions in pretty good Italian. He’s obviously been practising. Which got me thinking: Does Schumi know that in Italian culture No. 13 is said to bring luck?

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Michael Schumacher's string of bad luck continues at Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal